Natasha Walker's Blog

Natasha Walker (aka John Purcell), author of The Secret Lives Of Emma Trilogy

Tell us about your latest creation:

The Secret Lives of Emma: Unmasked is the final book in The Secret Lives of Emma trilogy. After getting herself into trouble Emma breaks free and heads off to reclaim herself and live the life she always meant to live. Leaving her husband David facing a challenge - accept her for who she is or lose her forever.

Where are you from / where do you call home?:

I was born in Sydney and now call the northern suburb of Davidson home.

When you were a kid, what did you want to become? An author?:

When I was a kid I wanted to be involved in politics or be David Bowie.

What do you consider to be your best work? Why?:

The Secret Lives of Emma: Unmasked is my best work. I really enjoyed letting Emma be as wild as she liked.

Describe your writing environment to us – your writing room, desk, etc.; is it ordered or chaotic?:

I write in a tiny room I call the library. It’s a room which is too big to be a cupboard and too small to be a spare bedroom. I lined the walls with bookcases, filled them with books and plonked a desk in the middle. A perfect little writing room.

When you’re not writing, who/what do you like to read?:

At the moment I am reading outside my comfort zone. My job requires me to keep up with the latest trends, prize winners and blockbusters. Unobserved I retreat to my true love, the classics.

What was the defining book(s) of your childhood/schooling?:

The book which I consider to be the catalyst for my reading life is Catch-22. If a friend hadn’t handed it to me I don’t think I would be the reader or writer I am today.

If you were a literary character, who would you be?:

Zorba. Because he is everything I am not.

Apart from books, what do you do in your spare time (surprise us!)?:

I am a homebody. When I am not reading or writing I am building bookcases, or painting the deck, or fixing something (probably something I broke). I love to paint pictures, too. But I haven’t found the time recently.

What is your favourite food and favourite drink?:

My wife’s Toad in the Hole (look it up) and beer.

Who is your hero? Why?:

I don’t have one hero. I suppose my heros and heroines are scientists, great writers, philosophers, politicians and lawmakers.

Crystal ball time – what is the biggest challenge for the future of books and reading?:

Big data. Algorithms which mine our use of the internet to predict what we shall want to buy next. Eg: If you read this you’ll like this. I see such a service as reductive. We should never be our own teachers. I think it was Constable who said, A self-taught individual has a very ignorant teacher.

Blog URL: http://secretlivesofem.tumblr.com/

Facebook Page URL: https://www.facebook.com/thesecretlivesofemma

Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/NatashaWalkerAu

One of Australia's biggest television shows has left viewers stunned. John Purcell examines the decisions TV writers wrangle with at every turn.


Last night social media went nuts over the decision by the writers of Channel Ten’s drama Offspring to kill off one of the lead characters. The heated emotions displayed by the audience in their reactions were only made possible by effective writing. Bad writing does not generate such a response.


Writing for a TV drama must be one of the most difficult, thankless and unnerving writing jobs going. Writers are generally solitary beings and writing for TV is a group sport. As the vast majority of dramas offered up to the public are rejected within weeks of their premiere there can be no job security for anyone involved. Once the axe falls, the writers’ characters continue to live, love and die on their pages alone.

But if the TV drama is successful the writers face new challenges. A story which may have been written for 6 to 12 episodes tops may run to 30+ episodes. The unknown actors playing the leads may become Australian superstars and, filled to the brim with the belief that they and not the writing have been the cause of the show’s success, may leave mid-season to pursue fame and glory in Hollywood. We all know it happens, it happened in the case of Offspring last night. The writers must learn to adapt, to accept compromises, to write on taking in the changing landscape as they go. What a difficult place to write. And they must bear the burden of failing TV ratings alone. When a show succeeds it is the actors, when it fails it is the writing.


Imagine having a bigwig sit on the edge of your desk to suggest you kill off a character that ‘audience testing’ has told them is unpopular. Or suggesting people are bored of the setting and could you perhaps move the characters to the bush, the coast, Italy. Or they may just suggest that you’ve become too expensive and replace you all with writers desperate to break into TV and willing to work for peanuts.

Putting all that aside. What of the writers’ intent? What was it they set out to achieve in the first place? Did they want to take TV drama somewhere new? Did they want to excite new emotions or ideas in their audience? Most writers have some agenda. They believe in things. Their initial motivations develop, mature, deepen and intensify. They look for clever ways to infiltrate the minds of the public. The more, the better. How does a writer reach millions of people? TV is one way.

The reaction of the public to last night’s episode of Offspring serves the needs of the writer in two ways. The first is utilitarian; it raises their profile, improving their chances for further work. The second is that it answers the purpose of the work, to entertain and to awaken. But though the majority of the viewers would not dispute that they were entertained, most would dispute they were awakened. Yet so many of the comments on social media suggested the opposite was true. The detractors only prove that it did reach them. I bet they hugged their partners more tightly and they thought about death in a way which unnerved them.



But you may ask, but why write all this about a silly TV show? Because the writing was good.

The death of the much loved character was written in a completely unexceptional way. It presented a death that carried no meaning. It was ordinary. It was quiet. And was all the more shocking because it rolled on regardless of our wishes. As is the way with death.

And this serves a purpose. We should think about such things. We should examine them. We might alter our behaviour, even if only slightly. We may lose our fears and act more freely. Our lives are made brighter having done so. Anxiety is often caused by unknowns. Writers have been leading us into these dark places for years, illuminating them with their words, knowing that it is necessary for us to explore them. As Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living.



John Purcell is Booktopia's Head of Marketing, and earlier this year came out as the author of the bestselling erotic series The Secret Lives of Emma. He has been involved in the book industry for nearly half his life.

You can follow John on twitter at @Bookeboy

As part of Australian Romance Month, Romance Specialist Haylee Nash will be interviewing one Australian Romance author per day. Much like a beauty pageant, each author will be using their charm, wit and grace (and the power of social media) to take home the Booktopia Romance Bestseller crown. Booktopia invites bestselling erotic romance author Natasha Walker.


1. Describe the perfect date.
Natasha: The date that isn’t a date. The date which begins with an accidental meeting - at a coffee shop, in a bookshop, on a train platform - a casual chat, an awareness of each other, an awareness of that awareness and then the parting. A parting which is interrupted by a return, and an exchange of numbers, a daring comment, a touch, a suggestion, an arrangement to meet later which is brought forward to now. The corner of a bar. A drink. Two. For courage. Hands shaking. Staring silences. Urgent need to leave the bar. On the street. Wandering. Talking. Bumping, touching. A kiss.
John: What she said.

2. Which of your books are you most proud of?
The Secret Lives of Emma: Unmasked, it is the third and final book in the trilogy and the one where I was finally able to let Emma run wild and free. And it is a beautiful thing to see! If you haven’t read Unmasked yet let me tell you some of what you’re missing out on – in no particular order, a gorgeous Italian artist called Marco, Otranto, Italy in the summer, a super-hot MMF threesome and, if my memory serves me well – a happy ending, or six.

3. What is the hardest thing about being a romance author?
Being told you’re not by those who think only conventional relationships are romantic.

4. What is the best thing about being a romance author?
Getting to hang out with the ladies at the next Australian Romance Readers Convention!

5. Who (aside from a significant other) do you swoon over?
Natasha: Mr George Clooney. John: Mr George Clooney

6. Tell us something very few people know about you.
In my family I’m not considered tall.

7. Describe your writing style in three words.
To the point.

Click here to buy The Secret Lives of Emma: Unmasked from Booktopia,
Australia's local bookstore

8. What is your definition of a good book?
A good book is one I open as one person and close as another.

9. Which author would you invite to a dinner party and why?
Mr Charles Dickens. Because it is economical to do so – I would need only to cook for two, as the rest of the chairs at the table would be filled by the manifestations of his imagination.

10. Finish this sentence: I would do anything for love, but I won’t do_____
Everything I said I wouldn’t do for love I have already done. Love has conquered me.



John Purcell has worked in the book industry for the last 20 years. While still in his 20’s he opened John’s Bookshop , a second-hand bookshop in Mosman in which he sat for 10 years reading, ranting and writing. Now he is the Head of Marketing at Booktopia , Australia’s largest 100% Australian-owned and operated online bookshop where he is charged with putting the book into Booktopia . He counts many long-dead authors among his friends. Oh, and from time to time he masquerades as a woman by the name of Natasha Walker and writes filthy books to help women get to sleep at night.

Natasha Walker is the best-selling authoress of Australia's hottest erotic fiction … or is she? Caroline Overington reveals Natasha's big secret.

Don't read this if you don't like the feeling of being duped.

Okay.

The Weekly is exclusively revealing today that the author of the racy Australian trilogy, The Secret Lives of Emma, isn't a woman called Natasha Walker.

It's a man.

The books, which became best-sellers last year on the back of the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon, were written by a married father-of-two, John Purcell.

John is the chief book buyer and head of marketing at Australia's largest online bookstore, Booktopia.

The Emma trilogy, an erotic tale of a bored housewife and the young man who lives next door, has sold more than 50,000 copies, which makes John one of Australia's best-selling authors of "mummy porn".

That's quite an achievement for a man who failed his HSC. Read More

1. Congratulations, you have a new book. What is it about and what does it mean to you?

Thanks. Unmasked is the final book in The Secret Lives of Emma trilogy. At the end of book two, Distractions, I was a bit mean and left readers hanging right at the point where nothing was going right for my heroine, Emma Benson. In geekspeak – it was my The Empire Strikes Back.

I can’t say much about Unmasked. I don’t want to spoil it. What I can say is Emma ends up on the southern coast of Italy in midsummer.

Unmasked is my favourite of the three. It’s a happy ending. But only those who know Emma well can possibly predict what a happy ending for Emma means.

2. Time passes. Things change. What are the best and worst moments that you have experienced in the past year or so?

The past year has been completely bizarre. The best moment was getting a publishing deal. The worst moment was not being able to tell the whole world I finally got a publishing deal. For the sake of my family I decided to publish under a pseudonym. I was the tenth highest selling Australian novelist in 2012 and my proud mum can’t tell any of her friends!

3. Do you have a favourite quote or passage you would be happy to share with us? It doesn’t need to be deep but it would be great if it meant something to you.

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness - Bertrand Russell.

4. Writers have often been described as being difficult to live with. Do you conform to the stereotype or defy it? Please tell us a little about the day to day of your writing life.

I work fulltime so all my writing is done at night, in the early hours of morning and on weekends. This can put a strain on relationships but thankfully, when I am writing I write quickly, in intense bursts of inspiration and so far have hit all of the brutal deadlines set by my publisher. (I’ve had three books published in under a year)

5. Some writers claim not to be influenced by the needs of the marketplace, while others seem obsessed by it. Would you please describe how the marketplace affects your writing (come on, tell the truth!).

The marketplace did not influence the writing of The Secret Lives of Emma but the publication of it was very much influenced by it. After the sudden initial success of Fifty Shades publishers worldwide were scrambling to publish other erotic novels as fast as they could. Luckily enough for me at that precise moment my agent had just read the draft of an erotic story I had written. The rest is history!

6. Unlikely Scenario: You’ve been charged with civilising twenty ill-educated adolescents but you may take only five books with you. What do you take and why?

Why would I want to civilise a bunch of adolescents? Age and responsibilities will civilise them soon enough. I’d prefer to keep them uncivilised.

If I really had to take some books with me I’d take – The Philosophy of the Bedroom by The Marquis de Sade, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks and Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss. Though I think very soon they would be used to fuel the fire we made to cook the smallest of the group.

Natasha, thank you for playing.
Add The Secret Lives of Emma : Unmasked Today

To me, the trouble with the vast majority of erotica is twofold:

(i) the quality of the writing is far more disturbing than anything the protagonists might do to each other, literary merit not usually being the most lasting effect the author hopes to create;

and (ii) there are, to put it bluntly, only so many ways tab A can be inserted into slot B - or even slots B, C and D, simultaneously or in-turn.

As such, I’m not a huge fan of the genre, often finding it predictable, dull, less believable than the letters to Penthouse Forum, and worst of all, execrably written. It’s not that I don’t like smut, it’s just that I’d much prefer to serendipitously stumble across a nice bit of filth in a novel I am already engaged with, where the characters think and feel, and any slot/tab sightings are integral to the plot.

The Secret Lives of Emma: Beginnings  has the potential to change all that. Natasha Walker’s debut novel is eloquent, measured and articulate, its tone - in surely a first for erotica - both wry and playful. More to the point, it’s dirty enough that Walker adopted a pseudonym to write the book, and readers may feel in need of a shower after finishing it, cold or otherwise.

Emma Benson is a 32 year old housewife, not so much desperate as desperately sensual, in thrall to her own carnal nature and, though she loves her husband, questioning her ability to remain faithful to him after less than a year of marriage.

Salvation comes in the form of 18 year old schoolboy Jason, who literally drops into her lap when she is sunbathing in her backyard one afternoon. Though tall, good looking and an accomplished sportsman, Jason is (surprisingly but conveniently) untutored in the ways of the flesh, something Emma sets out to rectify over the course of the book.

One of The Secret Lives of Emma: Beginnings'  most impressive achievements in this regard is how Walker establishes the sexual tension between the characters early in chapter one, then not only sustains, but mercilessly ratchets it up, for the remaining 250 or so pages.

After the FIFTY SHADES OF GREY phenomenon, it is refreshing to find a female erotica lead who is older, experienced and very much in touch with her sexuality. Quite deeply in touch, as some scenes reveal, but I digress. More interestingly, Emma, like her Jane Austen namesake, is intelligent, self-assured, forthright, scheming and definitely likes to get involved in the lives of her neighbours. Walker’s occasional asides through Emma’s eyes on the nature of monogamy or Australian politics or the particular private school type peculiar to Sydney’s north shore are witty and subversive, a delight to read.

Still, that’s not why you buy erotica, is it? Perhaps I should just say then that yes, the book is filthy, arousing, and features plenty of tabs and slots, with the two sequels to be released later this year and in 2013 promising even greater levels of depravity. Walker - and Emma - are women to watch. I predict The Secret Lives of Emma: Beginnings will sell like hot cocks. Sorry, cakes.

Guest Blogger: Kylie Ladd, author of Last Summer and After the Fall